


Yours truly

by orphan_account



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, M/M, soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:01:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25120561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Gaara, at 16 is not interested in small talk, or really talking at all. The young, powerful genin makes his self serving feelings clear to those around him, and rarely even speaks to his closest remaining family; siblings Temari and Kankuro.So naturally he's confused when he discovers a three year old letter from a leaf village genin who he not only defeated in battle, but attempted to kill more than once. More puzzling yet is how compelled he feels to reply.But Gaara doesn't know the first thing about writing letters, or friendship. Why him?
Relationships: Gaara/Rock Lee
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

Rock Lee did as many pushups as his body would permit, with a few more to go. The chunin exams were coming up in a week. Gai Sensei watched up on a rock from a distant edge of the training grounds. 

"Four hundred and fifty two!" 

"Four hundred fifty three!" 

"If I cannot get to four hundred and fifty four I will do 200 leg squats!" 

He ended up finishing both tasks by early afternoon. Neji and Ten-ten finished training long ago and went to the village to buy lunch. Lee was exhausted, so he decided to do the same.

He found a fruit stand in town, and bought an apple. The old vendor gave him a strange concerned look as he handed the apple to him, but said nothing about how hard Lee was breathing, or how damp his face was. 

He thanked the vendor and stashed the apple away. Lee strolled down the brick road that lead to a small bridge away from the bustling, crowded town. The sun indicated it was two hours after noon, but even then it was far too noisy for him. 

On his way away from the crowd, he noticed a few of his fellow leaf genin. Not too far ahead of him he recognized his two teammates. Ten-ten's unique double bun hairstyle gave them away. They were engaged in some deep spirited conversation, laughing at inside jokes and sharing things only the two could understand. He did not approach them.

Then he spotted Naruto, 

the gloomy Sasuke, sitting in that same tree,

And of course, 

Sakura. Oh Sakura.. maybe, if he played his cards right, he could be her boyfriend, and take her out to lunch every day. He planned on finding her and asking her out at the exams next week. 

The next day, he bought a slice of honeydew. Sakura was not there. Sasuke was. Sitting in the same place, looking down on everybody. What did Sakura even like about him?

Rock Lee did not give much feeling to the thought, and sat at the bridge to devour his green slice of melon. He saw three sound ninjas walk across, and thought little of it, because lots of different ninjas went to their village for the exams. 

Three days before the exam he saw nobody he recognized, and didn't feel like eating, because his breakfast had sustained him. 

He still decided to go to the bridge for a break and spotted a three sand ninjas. He wondered what was in the smaller one's gourd, but then realized that it was a nonsensical question. They were _sand_ ninjas. Obviously it was sand. 

The day before the exams, Sasuke got down from his tree and for a moment, it looked as though he was going to face off with the smaller sand ninja. It was the same one from earlier with the gourd. 

They only stared at another, but they did it for a long time. Lee didn't stop to see why, because today he had a bag full of fresh strawberries. They were his favorite. 

He was just finishing his lunch, when the three sand ninjas from earlier walked by. The girl stopped to lean on her weapon and stare. 

"Hey Kankuro, what's with this kid?" 

Kankuro walked over close and looked at him. He did not seem friendly, nor mean. It was if Rock Lee were some strange rare bird that he'd never seen before. 

"I dunno Temari.." He reasoned "Maybe his hair stylist doesn't like him," 

Then he walked back, and they talked like usual. The little one with gourd and the fox-like hair looked back at him. His stare was icy. 

Lee looked back and frowned. When they left, he noticed there were remaining strawberries, but was no longer hungry. 

He gifted the remaining fruit to his sensei. 

"Strawberries? Aw thanks kiddo! Bring it in here," 

Gai tussled his hair. 

"So," he said, popping a strawberry in his mouth, "you remember the plan for tomorrow?" 

Lee shook his head. "To kick butt right?" 

Gai nearly choked.

"Thats right! Well, close enough," 


	2. The exams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter.

The exams did not go at all as planned.

First, he finally got to meet Sakura, and she turned him down, which was not what he thought would happen at all but at least he got to annihilate Sasuke.

His victory didn't last long though, because his sensei confronted him about it. They agreed fighting before the exam was not smart; they both made up over large amounts of tears. Gai was the best sensei ever.

He flew through the first two exams, though he made a fool of himself by getting clobbered by a sound ninja in front of his sweetheart, Sakura. Thankfully she didn't seem to mind. 

It was the preliminary round that weeded him out. He ended up getting paired to the sand ninja from before. Apparently his name was Gaara. His eyes were still cold. The entire time, he thought he could win. Even as the sand blinded him and his conciousness faded he thought he could.

Looking back, he should've known. It was that look in his eyes, so foreign, and devoid of emotion. When he was comatose, in the hospital, he dreamt about Gaara. Most of them were regular dreams, but once he had a strange nightmare about the sand's embrace. At first it was comforting, but it quickly turned cold and constricting. 

Soon after the nightmare, he awoke from the state. The room was empty, except for a single lily in a vase. A nurse told him it was from a girl, but Shikimaru said that he doubted that. 

He went back to training, though it hurt, and he bled sometimes. 100 of each warmup the first week, 200 the next, so on until he was back to the status quo. 

Each night at the hospital, he had the same dream. It was a continuation of the nightmare he had a while back. Every night they became more graphic. Some nights he would wake up hyperventilating, and others, he couldn't sleep at all. 

Those were the times he practiced hardest. He told himself that eventually he would face Gaara again. 

His anger towards him pushed him forward in training, through the final exams, and the death of the third hokage. Lee however was not one to hold a grudge for long, and after a period his anger transformed into curiosity.

In the days that Lee was training from the hospital yard, he spent more time than ever coming up with new questions about Gaara. He wondered how he trained, and if he ever had fun. Lee wondered if the sand ninja ever liked a girl the way he liked Sakura, or whether he could talk to someone the way Neji and Ten-ten did. 

Eventually these thoughts faded as his recovery sped up. Soon he was back to normal, hoping to face his rivals, Neji, and get back on track, which seemed closer than ever. 

Gai would visit the hospital every day to say something convincing. Naruto visited often, and sometimes he even got to see Sakura. She was doing well, which almost made him feel good enough to get out of bed and do a dance. 

Months later, though he was told that medical officials said he would never recover, he made it past his old workout routine. Shortly after that he was released. On his last day in the hospital the nurses, who at this point were very familiar with him, offered to get him his favorite food as a parting gift. He asked for strawberries. He received a heaping plate.

Lee thanked the nurses, and savored the red treat. He saved some as well. Later that night he enjoyed the rest of the strawberries in his own room. He never would've imagined enjoying his ceiling this much.

Then suddenly he though of Gaara and his stark red hair. Just like the strawberries he had eaten. He wondered if his hair smelled like them, then he wondered why he would think that. Lee used to feel a jolt of terror when thinking about him, but that had faded with the nightmares. 

Before he went to bed that night he grabbed a pen and decided to write. In a strange way, he was thankful to Gaara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, and helping me fix my mortifying grammar :,)


End file.
